Which Octopus Energy tariff is right for you? (2026 guide)

Affiliate disclosure: this post contains an Octopus Energy referral link. If you use it, both of us get £50 bill credit, the same £50 any Octopus referral earns, just attributed to me. It doesn't change the price you pay or the tariff you can pick.

Editorial note: I've been an Octopus Energy customer since September 2019, for both fuels until July 2026 and for gas since, when my electricity moved to EDF's tracker for its lower standing charge. Across all of it I've only been on the Flexible and Fixed tariffs. I have a smart meter; I haven't personally used Tracker, Agile, Go, Intelligent Go, Cosy, Outgoing or Flux. Where this post talks about my own usage, that's first-hand. Where it talks about Octopus's smart tariff range, that's an analyst-style summary of Octopus's published rates and customer data; read it as such.

Octopus's tariff list looks intimidating until you realise that almost all of it is built around two questions:

1. Do you have a smart meter?
2. Do you have an EV, a heat pump, solar, or none of the above?

Answer those two and the choice usually narrows to one or two tariffs.

I'll be upfront about something the brochure doesn't say: a smart meter alone is not a reason to leave Fixed. I have a working smart meter. My gas is on Octopus Fixed, and my electricity was too until July 2026, when it went to EDF for a lower standing charge rather than for anything the smart meter unlocked. The real reason (covered later in this post) is that smart-tariff savings for households without an EV, a heat pump, or solar are genuinely modest, and not always worth the variability.

The 30-second decision tree

Skip ahead if your situation matches one of these:

• EV with home charger → Intelligent Octopus Go (or standard Octopus Go if your EV/charger isn't on the supported list). Intelligent Go is 8p/kWh overnight and Go 9.40p, both sold only as 12-month fixes with a £50 exit fee at the moment.
• Heat pump or electric-only heating → Cosy Octopus. Eight off-peak hours a day at around 14.5p/kWh (April–June 2026 cap rate).
• Solar panels (no battery) → Stay on whichever import tariff makes sense for your usage and add Outgoing Octopus for export. Note: export prices changed on 1 March 2026.
• Solar + battery → Octopus Flux, where you schedule the battery yourself, or Agile Octopus paired with Agile Outgoing Octopus for export.
• No EV, no heat pump, no solar → Octopus Fixed if you'd rather lock in for 12 months, Flexible Octopus if you'd rather stay on the price cap. Octopus Tracker averaged only 0.63p/kWh under the cap from January to 22 October 2026, and has cost more than it since August. That choice is the one the rest of this post works through.
• No smart meter (and don't want one) → Flexible Octopus, capped at the Ofgem price cap.

The full lineup is below. The price-cap figures are the 1 October – 31 December 2026 quarter, Go and Intelligent Go were re-read on 20 October 2026, and Tracker, Agile and the 12-month fix on 23 October; the other smart-tariff rates were last read on the April–June cap and are labelled where they appear.

The Octopus tariff lineup in 2026

Flexible Octopus

The default tariff. Standard variable, capped at the Ofgem price cap (opens in new tab). From 1 October to 31 December 2026 the cap sets the typical dual-fuel direct-debit household at £1,723 per year, with an electricity unit rate of 26.32p/kWh and a standing charge of 54.83p/day. Flexible Octopus tracks that cap. It's what you land on if you don't actively choose another tariff, and what most Octopus customers are on.

Best for: households without a smart meter, or anyone who prefers no admin and the safety of cap-tracking pricing.

Octopus Fixed

A 12-month fixed-rate tariff. Unit rates and standing charges are locked for the term. Octopus's Fixed sits above or below the price cap depending on where wholesale prices are at the moment of sign-up: in Southern on 23 October 2026, the 12-month fix was 30.56p/kWh for electricity against the cap's 26.47p. When the cap rises, Fixed often comes in below the next cap and saves money. July 2026 was that moment: the cap went up 13%, and Fixed deals sourced at spring prices were locked in underneath it.

Leaving the 12-month fix early costs £50 per fuel, so check your tariff details in-app before signing up.

Best for: anyone who wants budget certainty and is willing to swap a small amount of upside for protection from cap rises. This is what my gas is on. More on why below.

Octopus Tracker

A daily wholesale-tracking tariff. Each afternoon (typically after 4pm) Octopus publishes the next day's unit rate based on the day-ahead wholesale auction, plus a fixed markup for network costs, policy costs and Octopus's margin. Rates vary by region.

From 1 January to 22 October 2026, Tracker's electricity rate averaged 25.54p/kWh across Octopus's 14 regions, from 24.57p in the East Midlands to 27.18p in North Wales and Mersey, against 26.17p for the price cap over the same days: 2.4% less. Its gas rate did worse, averaging 7.27p/kWh against the cap's 6.46p. And it's volatile: cold snaps and gas-supply shocks push the daily rate up sharply, and Octopus caps it at 100p/kWh for electricity and 30p/kWh for gas, far above the price cap. (You won't hit those numbers in practice; they exist as a safety stop.)

Best for: households with a smart meter and room in the budget for months above the cap, who want wholesale pricing without shifting load and can start in the spring rather than going into winter.

Agile Octopus

A half-hourly tariff. The unit rate changes every 30 minutes, following the wholesale market in real time. Standing charges still apply, and a peak-time uplift (typically 4–7pm) makes those slots more expensive than the average.

From 1 January to 22 October 2026, Agile's half-hourly prices averaged 22.97p/kWh across Octopus's 14 regions, against 26.17p for the price cap over the same days, but 38.19p between 4pm and 7pm. The cheapest three-and-a-half-hour block of each day averaged 14.42p/kWh, 55% of the cap rate. Every month since August has averaged above the cap. Smart-load shifting (dishwasher, EV charging, washing machine, hot-water cylinder) is where Agile pays.

Best for: households with shiftable load: EV owners, anyone with a smart-charger, hot-water tanks, smart appliances, or solar-and-battery setups.

Octopus Go

A two-rate EV tariff. Cheap overnight off-peak window of 00:30–05:30 every night (opens in new tab) (five hours), then a peak rate for the remaining 19 hours. Octopus is only selling it as a 12-month fix at the moment, with a £50 exit fee: 9.40p/kWh overnight in every region, and 36.90p at peak on average across its 14 regions.

Best for: EV households where the car can charge automatically between 00:30 and 05:30 every night. If your charger or vehicle isn't on Intelligent Octopus Go's supported list, standard Go is the fallback.

Intelligent Octopus Go

The premium EV tariff. Six hours of off-peak whole-home electricity overnight, between 23:30 and 05:30, at 8p/kWh (opens in new tab). The rest of the day costs 1.86p to 2.24p/kWh more than on Go, depending on region, 38.90p on average, and like Go it is only sold as a 12-month fix with a £50 exit fee at the moment. The "intelligent" part is that Octopus controls the charging schedule for compatible EVs and chargers, smart-shifting your charge to the cheapest half-hours, which can fall inside that window or outside it.

A change worth flagging: from 2026, Intelligent Octopus Go applies a 6-hour daily off-peak cap (opens in new tab). About 80% of Intelligent Go charging sessions already used under six hours, but if you've been routinely scheduling longer charges, anything beyond the cap now bills at the daytime rate.

Best for: EV owners with a supported charger or vehicle who want the full whole-home overnight cheap window without configuring it themselves.

Cosy Octopus

A three-rate tariff for households heating with electricity. Eight off-peak hours a day across three windows (4–7am, 1–4pm, 10pm–12am), a peak rate from 4–7pm, and a standard daytime rate the rest of the time. On the April–June 2026 cap, the rates are roughly:

• Off-peak: 14.53p/kWh
• Standard day: 33.28p/kWh
• Peak (4–7pm): 51.68p/kWh

The structure is designed to nudge heat-pump owners to pre-heat the house cheaply during off-peak hours and run the pump less during the 4–7pm peak. You need a heat pump, electric radiator, or electric boiler to qualify (it doesn't have to be Octopus-installed). Octopus's published estimate is a small annual saving (around £35) versus the price cap for a typical 6,600 kWh-per-year heat-pump household. That figure suggests Cosy is more about smoothing peak grid stress than dramatic bill savings; the real win is for households whose heat pump can pre-heat a well-insulated home and ride out the 4–7pm peak.

Best for: households with a heat pump and decent insulation who can shift heating load away from 4–7pm.

Outgoing Octopus

The standard solar export tariff. Pays a flat per-kWh rate for electricity exported to the grid. Rates were updated on 1 March 2026. You can pair Outgoing with whichever import tariff suits your usage best.

Best for: solar households without a battery who want a simple flat export rate.

Octopus Flux and Intelligent Octopus Flux

Two import-and-export tariffs for homes with solar panels and a battery. On Octopus Flux (opens in new tab) you schedule the battery yourself. New to Octopus? Switch to Flexible Octopus and Outgoing Octopus first, then sign up on the Flux page. Intelligent Octopus Flux (opens in new tab), where Octopus runs the battery for you, is temporarily closed to new sign-ups unless you bought your solar panels and battery from Octopus.

Why I'm on Fixed despite having a smart meter

This is the no-spin section.

I've been an Octopus customer since September 2019. I have a working smart meter sending half-hourly readings. My gas is on Octopus Fixed, and my electricity was until July 2026: with the term due to end in September, I moved that fuel to EDF's Simply Tracker for its lower standing charge, a decision about the daily fee rather than about smart tariffs, and one that costs me £70.13 a year against the Fixed it replaced (the EDF referral page has the arithmetic). The reasons for Fixed aren't sophisticated:

1. My usage shape is flat. No EV, no heat pump, no solar. I cook in the evenings, I work from home some days, and I run the dishwasher whenever it's full. There's nothing meaningful to time-shift to a cheap overnight window or a 1pm Cosy slot. Smart-tariff savings come almost entirely from load-shifting; without something to shift, the savings shrink to near nothing.
2. I value budget certainty, and in 2026 it was cheaper too. From January to June, while my electricity was still on its 22.93p/kWh fix, Tracker's electricity rate averaged 24.61p in Southern, my region, and beat the fix only in April. I'd rather know what the bill is.
3. The price cap rose in July 2026. Ofgem put it up 13% for 1 July to 30 September, to £1,663 a year on the consumption values that took effect the same day. May's announcement priced the identical rates on the older values it retired: £1,862, against April's £1,641 and under the £1,937–1,972 the industry forecasters had modelled. Fixed tariffs sourced at spring 2026 prices were locking in below it either way. That's the moment Fixed earns its keep.
4. The 2021–22 lock decided this for me. I locked into Fixed in September 2021, weeks before wholesale prices exploded. It saved me several hundred pounds across the next 12 months. That's the moment I learned that "boring" can be the right energy decision.

If any of those four points don't describe you (particularly if you have an EV, a heat pump, or solar) your decision is different.

Tracker: should I switch to it?

The most-asked-about smart tariff, and the one whose answer changes most with your household.

The case for Tracker:

• Its electricity rate came in under the price cap in every month from January to July 2026, by as much as 3.17p/kWh in April.
• No load-shifting needed. The savings come from being on the wholesale curve instead of the cap, not from running appliances at 3am.
• Daily price visibility. You see tomorrow's rate at around 4pm today, so you can plan if you want to.

The case against Tracker:

• Daily volatility. A cold snap with a gas-supply scare can push the rate up sharply for several days running. The historical worst case in winter 2022 saw it spike well above the cap.
• It has cost more than the cap every month since August 2026, by 2.33p/kWh so far in October, and Octopus's Tracker page says its prices typically rise in colder months.
• Even counting the good months, the saving is small: from January to 22 October 2026, a home using 2,500 kWh a year, Ofgem's typical figure, paid £13.00 a year less on Tracker than on Flexible Octopus, standing charge included, averaged across the 14 regions.
• It costs you mental energy. If you're someone who gets stressed by checking unit rates every day, that's a real ongoing tax.

Where I'd lean: not going into winter. If you have a smart meter, a flexible budget and no anxiety about bill variability, try Tracker for three months from the spring; you can switch back to Fixed or Flexible without penalty. If you'd find daily price-watching tedious, stay on Fixed.

EV charging: Octopus Go vs Intelligent Octopus Go

Both are sold only as 12-month fixes with a £50 exit fee at the moment. Intelligent Go is 1.40p/kWh cheaper overnight (8p against 9.40p) in every region, and 1.86p to 2.24p dearer for the rest of the day, with a standing charge 1.94p to 3.08p a day higher, depending on region. Past that, the choice is about your charger and vehicle.

Pick Intelligent Octopus Go if:

• Your car and home charger are on Octopus's supported list (opens in new tab).
• You want six hours of whole-home off-peak power overnight rather than Go's five.
• You're happy to let Octopus's smart system schedule your charging.

Pick standard Octopus Go if:

• Your EV or charger isn't supported by Intelligent Go.
• Your home uses a lot of electricity during the day, which costs 1.86p to 2.24p/kWh less on Go, depending on region.
• You're comfortable scheduling charging manually for the 00:30–05:30 window.

The 6-hour daily off-peak cap on Intelligent Go from 2026 affects a small minority of users (Octopus says around 20% of sessions go over), but it's worth knowing about if you've got a large battery (e.g. 100 kWh+) you sometimes top up from very low.

For full transparency: I don't drive an EV. The above is summarised from Octopus's published rates and the 2026 EV-tariff coverage at Energy Stats UK and Sunsave; if you've actually used either tariff for a year, your real-world view will be more useful than mine.

Switching tariff once you're an Octopus customer

This is the part Octopus does well. Tariff changes happen in the app or web account in a few clicks, and most go live the same day or within 24 hours. There's no penalty for switching between Octopus's variable tariffs (Flexible, Tracker, Agile, Cosy) at any time. Go and Intelligent Go are only sold as fixes at the moment, so leaving either early costs £50.

A few practical notes:

• Smart-meter prerequisite. Tracker, Agile, Go, Intelligent Go and Cosy all need a smart meter sending half-hourly readings. If yours is sending daily, switch the reporting frequency in your Octopus account first. If you don't have one, Octopus installs them free.
• Fixed exit fees. Leaving Fixed early costs £50 per fuel on the current 12-month fix. Confirm your specific contract in-app before switching off Fixed. Unit-rate movement can sometimes still make it worth paying the exit, but do the maths.
• Mid-tenancy switches. If you've moved house and your meter readings haven't fully landed, give it a fortnight before switching tariff so the back-billing is clean.
• Octoplus rewards. Saving Sessions, free-electricity hours and the monthly Octopoints spin apply on most tariffs, but only if Octopus supplies your electricity on a smart meter sending half-hourly readings and you pay by direct debit. Gas-only accounts don't qualify. Double-check the rewards carry over to whichever tariff you switch into.

My verdict for 2026

For most Octopus customers, the answer is one of three things:

1. EV at home → Intelligent Octopus Go. Octopus's strongest EV tariff, at 8p/kWh overnight.
2. Heat pump → Cosy Octopus. Modest direct savings, but the structure pays back if you can pre-heat in the off-peak windows and ride out the 4–7pm peak.
3. Everyone else → Fixed if you want certainty, Flexible if you'd rather stay on the cap. Tracker's 2026 edge over the cap, 0.63p/kWh and none of it since August, is too thin to recommend.

Solar-and-battery homes sit outside those three: Octopus Flux, or Agile Octopus paired with Agile Outgoing Octopus for export.

If this guide has been useful and you're not yet an Octopus customer, you can use my Ad Octopus £50 referral link (opens in new tab). Both of us get £50 bill credit, paid after your first direct debit. The full referral scheme is explained on the Octopus Energy referral page.

Octopus Energy tariff FAQs

What is the best Octopus Energy tariff in 2026?

There isn't a single best tariff: it depends on what you've got at home. EV with a home charger: Intelligent Octopus Go is the strongest pick, at 8p/kWh overnight in every region on a 12-month fix. Heat pump or electric heating: Cosy Octopus, which gives you eight off-peak hours a day at around 14.5p/kWh on the April–June 2026 price cap. No EV, no heat pump, no solar: Octopus Fixed for 12 months of price certainty, or Flexible Octopus to stay on the price cap; Octopus Tracker averaged only 0.63p/kWh under the cap from January to 22 October 2026. I'm a six-year Octopus customer with a smart meter and my gas is on Fixed; the reasoning is below.

Is Octopus Tracker cheaper than Fixed?

It depends on when you fix. Octopus Tracker's electricity rate averaged 25.54p/kWh across Octopus's 14 regions from 1 January to 22 October 2026, and 25.63p in Southern, my region. The 12-month fix my electricity was on there until July 2026 charged 22.93p, which Tracker beat only in April. Octopus's 12-month fix on 23 October 2026 was 30.56p in Southern, above any month of Tracker so far this year, but Tracker has cost more than the price cap every month since August, and Octopus says its prices typically rise in colder months. Octopus caps Tracker at 100p/kWh for electricity and 30p/kWh for gas, far above the price cap. Tracker rewards risk tolerance and a flexible budget; Fixed buys you certainty.

Do I need a smart meter to use Octopus's smart tariffs?

Yes: Tracker, Agile, Go, Intelligent Go, Cosy and Outgoing all require a smart meter sending half-hourly readings. If you have a smart meter installed but it's only sending daily or monthly readings, you can change the reporting frequency in your Octopus account settings. Octopus offers a free smart-meter installation if you don't have one yet.

When does Octopus Agile beat the price cap?

On most days, though not lately. From 1 January to 22 October 2026, Agile's half-hourly prices averaged 22.97p/kWh across Octopus's 14 regions against 26.17p for the price cap, and a day's prices averaged under the cap on 73% of days; every month since August has averaged above it. The headline savings come from shifting load: the cheapest three-and-a-half-hour block of each day averaged 14.42p/kWh, while 4pm to 7pm averaged 38.19p. If you can run your dishwasher, washing machine, hot water and EV (if you have one) inside those windows, Agile pays back. If your usage shape is fixed across the day, the savings shrink.

Can I switch between Octopus tariffs once I'm a customer?

Yes, and it's quick: most tariff changes happen the same day or within 24 hours through the Octopus app or website. There's typically no exit fee on Octopus's variable tariffs (Flexible, Tracker, Agile, Cosy). Fixed tariffs have an exit fee if you leave early: £50 on Go and Intelligent Go, which Octopus only sells as fixes at the moment, and £50 per fuel on Octopus's 12-month fix, so check your own contract in-app for the exact figure. You can move between smart tariffs as your situation changes (for example, off Go and onto Cosy if you replace your gas boiler with a heat pump).

You might also like

• Octopus Energy review: 6 years as a customer
• Octopus Energy vs E.ON Next: which is cheaper, and which pays more?
• EV charger installation: guide to home EV charging in the UK

Sources

• Ofgem energy price cap (1 October – 31 December 2026): https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/your-energy-supply/your-energy-bill/energy-price-cap-unit-rates-and-standing-charges (opens in new tab)
• Ofgem price cap levels by region for each 2026 quarter, behind the cap's 2026 average: January to March (opens in new tab), April to June (opens in new tab), July to September (opens in new tab), October to December (opens in new tab)
• Octopus Tracker daily rates and methodology: https://octopus.energy/smart/tracker/ (opens in new tab)
• Octopus Agile half-hourly pricing: https://octopus.energy/smart/agile/ (opens in new tab)
• Octopus Go: https://octopus.energy/smart/go/ (opens in new tab)
• Intelligent Octopus Go: https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-go/ (opens in new tab)
• Go, Intelligent Octopus Go, Tracker, Agile and 12-month Fixed rates by region, from Octopus's public tariff API: https://docs.octopus.energy/rest/guides/endpoints/ (opens in new tab)
• Cosy Octopus: https://octopus.energy/smart/cosy-octopus/ (opens in new tab)
• Octopus Flux: https://octopus.energy/smart/flux/ (opens in new tab)
• Intelligent Octopus Flux: https://octopus.energy/smart/intelligent-octopus-flux/ (opens in new tab)
• Q3 2026 Ofgem price cap forecasts (Cornwall Insight / EDF / E.ON), reported across UK energy press in April–May 2026.
• Octopus Energy 6.8 million UK households (April 2024): https://octopus.energy/press/largest-electricity-supplier-market-share/ (opens in new tab)

Price-cap figures are the 1 October – 31 December 2026 Ofgem cap, except the 2026 averages, which set Tracker and Agile against each region's cap rate on the same days from 1 January to 22 October. Go and Intelligent Go were read from Octopus's tariff pages and public API on 20 October 2026, and Tracker, Agile and the 12-month fix from its API on 23 October, all as Direct Debit rates; the other smart-tariff rates were last read on the April–June cap. Flux availability was read from Octopus's pages on 15 October 2026. The next cap is announced by 25 November 2026 and applies from 1 January 2027.